LAHORE - The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday urged the government to immediately withdraw its decision to import tractors as it would not only render thousands of cskilled and semi-skilled workers jobless but would also hit the local industry hard that has the capacity to meet domestic demand. In a joint statement issued here, the LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Senior Vice President Tahir Javaid Malik and Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that there was no point in spending much-needed foreign exchange on the import of tractors as it would be a severe blow to local vendors leaving them with no other option but to close down their units. The LCCI office-bearers said that the implementation of decision to import tractors would not only hit the investment of billions of rupees made by the 400 vendors of auto industry but was bound to jack-up the graph of unemployment. They said that wisdom lies in the withdrawal of this decision immediately as facilitation to the one sector should not be at the cost of other. They said that at the moment when the whole industry was passing trough the most critical times of its history, the bureaucracy was busy in making moves to defame a people and business-friendly government. The LCCI Office-bearers said that besides the fact that the local vending industry was highly developed and modernized, it was also ensuring spare parts, service and repair facilities to the farmers at their door steps but there would be no spare parts and servicing facilities for the high cost imported tractors. They apprehended that the decision is bound to hit the sales of local tractors because of their superior quality besides sending a wrong signal for further expansion of production capacities. Currently both the vendors and the manufacturers were operating on their full capacities he added. The LCCI office-bearers said that only a few days back the present government had secured loan from the International Monetary Fund to support in starving foreign exchange reserves and if the decision was implemented, it is beyond ones perception that from where the money for these tractors would come from. They said that it would further deepen the ongoing financial crises and economy would not be able to be back on rails. It is pertinent mention here that the Federal Cabinet approved the scheme at a cost of Rs 4 billion for providing 20,000 tractors to the farmers at concessional rates.